The only reference to Jesus' birth in John's gospel is before Pontius Pilate, and it's a royal purpose. The thing that ought to disturb us at Christmas time is that everybody likes to have gentle Jesus, meek and mild, in his infantile state, in a manger, in a position that is non-threatening, in a position that is absolutely tamable, in a position that is absolutely manipulated by us. The Bible tells us that with reference to the royal reign of Jesus Christ, it is the purpose for which he was born. That's what he says to Pontius Pilate.
This is the same thought or concept in Isaiah 9, 6. The government will be upon his shoulders. Isn't that encouraging? The government isn't on our shoulders.
The government isn't on Justin Trudeau's shoulders. The government isn't on Joe Biden's shoulders. If all there is is what we see, this is far more messed up than you and I had ever even imagined. But Christ at the right hand of God Most High rules.
He reigns. He's sovereign. He has universal empire. That's the emphasis in Matthew 28.
That's the emphasis in Ephesians chapter 1, 19 to 23. He's exalted at the right hand of God, far above all principality and power and dominion and every name that is named in this age and in that which is to come. When John the Apostle comes to write his letter to the churches of Asia Minor that were suffering for the cause of Jesus Christ, he starts off with a Trinitarian greeting in Revelation chapter one. And he mentions that Jesus Christ now, right now, at the time that he wrote, is the ruler over the kings of the earth.
I think the church needs a fresh dose of that medicine because these are discouraging times in which we live. These are troubling times in which we experience. And yet Christ is over all these things presently. He's ruler over the kings of the earth.